U.S. and South Korea Start New Joint Drills

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Published: August 17, 2010

SEOUL, South Korea -- Tens of thousands of South Korean and United States troops began a new round of war games on Monday, as North Korea threatened a ''merciless counterblow'' amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The drills are the South's third major exercise -- the second conducted with the United States -- since the sinking of a South Korean warship in the spring for which the South blamed the North.

The 11-day drills are the largest annual joint United States-South Korean military exercises. This year they involve 56,000 South Koreans and 30,000 Americans in South Korea and abroad, some of them working on computer simulations.

As a parallel exercise, 400,000 South Korean government employees undertake a civil defense drill, which this year will include a simulated terrorist attack ahead of the G-20 summit meeting to be held in Seoul in November.

The North routinely calls the drills warmongering and accuses South Korea and its American ally of preparing for an invasion. North Korea has for years pursued nuclear weapons for what it describes as a deterrent to foreign attacks.

This year the North took action in addition to its belligerent statements, firing 110 artillery shells on a disputed western sea border with the South last Monday. South Korea belatedly revealed that some of the rounds fell south of the disputed sea border, but its military did not respond despite previous vows to do so.

The joint drills that began Monday are called Ulchi Freedom Guardian, in honor of a Korean general from the seventh century who Korean historians say routed a Chinese invasion.

On Monday, President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea repeated his country's stance that the drills were defensive.

''Our Ulchi exercises are for peace and for deterring war,'' he was quoted as saying while presiding over a cabinet meeting in an underground bunker at the presidential Blue House. ''Only when we are thoroughly prepared can we prevent war and defend peace.''

Mr. Lee and other cabinet members were all dressed in pea-green uniforms, as is the custom during their civil defense exercises.

South Koreans have grown used to repeated North Korean threats of ''sea of fire'' or ''nuclear holocaust'' -- so much so that such language no longer attracts much attention here, despite the recent increase in tension. At the same time, there is a growing fear in Seoul that North Korea's leadership may be increasingly confident that its nuclear arsenal will allow it to engage in military provocations with impunity.

In addition, some United States officials have suggested that North Korea may be engaged in a new wave of aggression as its leader, Kim Jong-il, tries to establish credentials for his youngest son as a possible successor. Mr. Kim suffered a stroke in 2008; the son, Kim Jong-un, is believed to be in his late 20s.

North Korea's propaganda artists have manufactured large volumes of portraits and badges bearing the son's image, reported Open Radio for North Korea, a Web site based in Seoul that gathers news from sources inside the North. It also said that all North Koreans are required to keep the portraits of Kim Jong-il and his father, President Kim Il-sung, on a wall of their homes and now must wear a Kim Il-sung pin -- or less often, a Kim Jong-il pin -- on their chest.

The new Kim Jong-un badges may be distributed to party officials early next month, when North Korea has said it would convene a large meeting of party members in the capital, Pyongyang. Officials in Seoul said they could not confirm the report.

Also on Monday, the government-run research group Korea Development Institute revealed a report prepared for President Lee that said that it would cost South Korea $2.1 trillion over 30 years to absorb North Korea if the North Korean government suddenly collapsed with the death of Kim Jong-il.

If South Korea succeeded in persuading the North to open up for a gradual economic integration with the South, the cost of unification would be around $322 billion, it said.

On Sunday, Mr. Lee called for a ''unification tax'' to finance the cost of rejoining North Korea. The two Koreas were divided at the end of World War II.

PHOTOS: South Korean officials on Monday tested emergency food supplies as part of a civil defense drill. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY HONG JIN-HWAN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE -- GETTY IMAGES); The Blue Ridge, a ship from the United States Navy, in Busan, South Korea, on Monday for joint military exercises. (PHOTOGRAPH BY NEWSIS, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS)